Immunisation Essay, Research Paper

We are always hearing on the news and in newspapers about children catching diseases and often dying from them. Why is this happening when all of these diseases are easily preventable by simply being immunised, why aren?t parents getting their children Immunised, is it for religious beliefs or just carelessness. What ever their reason may be is it really good enough, because why would anyone rather let their child be able to catch and spread a deadly disease then have them Immunised, so Immunisation should be made compulsory for all children.

In Australia in the last ten years more then 137 known people have died and many more fallen very ill from contagious and infectious disease. Diseases such as diphtheria; tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps rubella and Haemophilus influenzae, This is a great tragedy considering all these diseases are easily preventable by immunisation.

Immunisation or vaccination is a very effective and safe form of medicine used to prevent severe diseases occurring from viruses and other infectious organisms and increase the amount of protective antibodies. It is given by drops in the mouth or injecting a person with a dead or modified disease-causing agent, in order for the person to become immune to that disease.

If enough people in a community are immunised, the infection can no longer be spread from person to person and the disease will eventual die out altogether. This is how smallpox was eradicated from the world, and polio, which has been removed from many countries. But for this to happen in Australia at least 95 percent of the population would have to be immunised, which is far more then what it is now being at only 78 percent. So by making it compulsory for all children to be immunised this percentage would rise well above 95 and the diseases that are in our country now will soon disappear all together.

Immunisation is the only effective way of protection for children against these diseases because children?s immune systems are defenceless ageist them because they are not fully developed yet, and once infected in most cases there is no cure or at least a very low chance of one. Minor side effects of immunisation, like redness at the injection site, or occasionally a mild fever, which can easily be reduced with a paracetamol. But why would any one rather let your child be able to catch and spread these deadly diseases then get them immunised because of these rare and very minor risks.

If parents were to have the right to not have there children immunised, and if their children were to fall ill, then what right should they have to then take there contagious child to hospital and expect them to be cured. When these parents had the chance to prevent it and took no notice of it or simply did not understand the consequences of non-immunisation.

Any one must agree that prevention is defiantly better than cure, and that immunisation is better then falling ill and risking your life. Australia would defiantly be a better and healthier country if all children were immunised and all the harmful disease were eradicated. In conclusion, I can safely say that if immunisation was compulsory, despite religious beliefs and fears, every one would be better off. Sure, the vaccines may cause side affects but so do most drugs. So please parents, I urge you to take control of the situation and make immunisation LAW!